5 Reasons You Should Use Psychometric Testing When Hiring

There has been a lot of talk in the human resources industry lately about the importance of hiring somebody who is the right ‘cultural fit’ for your organisation, rather than somebody who necessarily ticks off every skill or experience on your candidate wish list.

The traditional hiring model of collecting resumes, interviewing and reference checking doesn’t always work to effectively identify if you are placing the right person in the right job. Recruitment industry leaders like Chandler Macleod have found that adding a level of psychology to recruitment by requesting candidates undertake psychometric assessment can really help make sure you’re getting the hiring decision right. Read on to find out why.

1. Candidates Have Usually More Interview Experience than The Managers

While employers can mitigate this by outsourcing recruitment to an agency, the reality is that often the people you’re interviewing have been to several job interviews, particularly in a competitive industry. This means that they can pre-empt the questions that will be asked and prepare answers in advance, and present themselves confidently.

2. Nobody Will List a Referee They Don’t Trust

Reference checks aren’t always failsafe – even if you verify the information provided via LinkedIn or other means to ensure that the referee listed did in fact work with your candidate, chances are they’re somebody the person has a good relationship with. Make sure you ask meaningful questions such as “can you tell me what Jane’s biggest challenges may be in the role?” to really uncover information that will help you with your decision making.

3. It Can Help You Retain Employees

Sometimes the candidate isn’t the problem – their role, team or even your organisation is. Not every employee’s workstyle suits every workplace and this can be difficult to determine until they have already started. A star candidate in the wrong position or organisation can still be a bad hiring decision and rehiring a role you recently filled can have a big impact on your bottom line.

4. People Can Learn Skills

Obviously there are some minimum requirements for a role but if it’s just previous industry experience or something else that can easily be learned and the person otherwise has values that suit your company culture and goals that will help them succeed in your business, they may be the better candidate over someone who looks really skilled on paper. It can be hard to determine this without the extra data that psychometric testing can uncover.

5. It Can Help You Work out What Role to Hire For

Psychometric testing doesn’t just help screen candidates – it can also measure the strengths and weaknesses of your existing team to help you address cultural and/or structuring issues before you place the ad to start recruiting. Ensuring you’re looking for someone to fill the right role is just as important as putting the right person in it for your organisation’s long term success.

Have you used psychometric assessment to help you screen or select candidates for a role at your company?